The Wire

All eyes will be on Victorian backbencher Tony Smith who has been catapulted to the position of Speaker in the federal parliament after the expenses scandal which saw Bronwyn Bishop lose the plum position. The federal government will be hoping Smith’s squeaky clean image will see the focus back on their key messages ahead of an election year, but political commentators say the selection of controversial MP Bronwyn Bishop in the first place was yet another bad “Captain’s Pick” by Tony Abbott. Peter Chen is politics lecturer at the university of Sydney